Chapter 3: The Mansion By Brother EThe old, run-down mansion resembled the old mansion from the famous CLUE board game. But this mansion looked a bit more like a castle. It had a long sidewalk that led down the middle of the big yard to the front steps. Joey walked up the steps to the big double doors. He grabbed the big handle and gave a heave. The doors didn’t move. They were locked.

They crept around the big yard. Tall trees covered the entire park. This is why it must be called “Wood’s Mansion”, thought Joey. On the side of big mansion, they saw big hunting dogs sleeping in their kennels. “We’re going to have to be very careful getting around those dogs!” whispered Roc.

Creeping past the dogs, they came to the back of the building. Just then, Joey saw a security camera. He and the rocks crept down low behind some bushes to get by it. The detective saw some back doors. He walked up to them and pulled. They were locked like the front doors. But Joey was still determined to find a way in.

“Answers are in this house,” he told the rocks. “Whoever those men were might be in here. They are also interested in the same story as we are.”

They were still looking when Joey realized something.

“Where’s Ks?” he asked Roc.

Roc looked around, “Don’t know! He was just here behind me.”

“Over here,” a voice whispered from behind.

Joey and Roc walked over to it. Ks was next to a set of old stone stairs. They went below the ground about nine feet.

“Look at what I found!” he exclaimed, quietly.

“Good job, brother!” said Roc.

“Yes,” said Joey. “These stairs might lead somewhere!”

Joey carefully walked down the stairs. The sides were made of concrete all the way up to ground level. The chamber had a musty smell. Joey was thankful for the AC unit running, which muffled his steps. Beside the AC unit was a single door. Joey took hold of the knob, and…it opened!“Ah, ha!” whispered Joey, “Somebody forgot to lock up!”

He looked up the stairs back at the two rocks, which were still at the top.

“OK, Rocks,” he exclaimed, but quietly. “Keep a look out!”

“We will!” the rocks said in unison.

Joey opened the door, which made a creaking noise. Lack of oil, thought Joey. He realized he couldn’t depend on moonlight alone, so he took out his flashlight. The bright beam was so much better. He knew where he was, in a long hallway. He crept down the hallway and came into a big living guest room. He pointed the light up to the roof. He saw an old grandfather clock and many pictures on the wall. They had relatives, family and friends. Joey looked closer; one had parents with a little girl and a big brother in the middle, another had the family with friends and other family. One big picture had them at a funeral. On the coffin it said “Great Grandfather Woods.”

“So this why the mansion is called Wood’s Mansion,” he said quietly.

More pictures were up on the wall, one of the family’s vacation, and others of normal daily activities. But then Joey realized something.

“Wait a minute,” he whispered. “This mansion must belong to somebody other than the guys here right now.”

He walked out of the fancy room and into the giant kitchen. There was a giant eating table and lots of chairs. Joey went into the kitchen center and looked around. While he looked he stepped on something that made a cracking noise. He looked down and saw, to his amazement, pieces of what looked like a Ruby Cat!

“Looks like another Ruby Cat!” exclaimed Joey, “But this one is in pieces. The crooks must have been trying to find the rubies, so they broke this one but to no avail.”

Joey put the statue back together like a puzzle. A few pieces were missing, so Joey looked inside for a trashcan. He found one and looked inside, and sure enough, the missing pieces were inside. He put the whole statue together and it was a Ruby Cat.

“Well, I wonder if there’s more here,” he whispered.

He went out of the kitchen into another room. This one had a billiard ball table in the middle of it with a few red chairs around it. Against the walls were a few small shelves. Joey looked along them and saw on one of the shelves another Ruby Cat!

He walked back through the kitchen, and the living room, back to the long hallway. He looked in one of the room. It was a master bedroom. He looked on all the shelves, and on one he saw another Ruby Cat! He looked in all the rooms and 3 out 5 had Ruby Cats. They were all old and scratched up.

“Well,” he whispered, “I guess these men have a job they are going to start.”

Just then, he heard voices and footsteps.

“Oh, great,” said Joey. “They’re coming!

He quickly put the Ruby Cat back on the shelf and quickly went out the door. He looked down the hall, and saw two men coming down the hall. He turned around and headed back toward the door he came in. But as he turned, he bumped into someone and fell on the ground. Joey rubbed his head and looked up. It was a butler in a black suit and white tie. He loomed over Joey. The other men came down the hall when heard the noise. One had a blue suit with a brown tie. The other had a brown vest and a round hat. They walked up to Joey and the butler.“Hey,” said the man in the brown vest. “What’s going on here?”

“Well, sir,” said the butler, “I found this young man snooping around in the house.”

“Do you have anything to say for yourself,” he asked Joey.

“Well, for your information sir,” replied Joey, “I was at the library researching when I saw someone spying on me. We took after him and saw that he went in a blue, 1970 Cadillac. They took off so fast that we couldn’t catch them. So I used my scanner to scan the tire marks, which led to here. So if you don’t mind sir, we’ll have a look at your car, if you don’t object.”

“Sure thing, young man,” the man in the vest said.

The four walked out the big front double doors to the big garage which held at least four cars. The butler walked to the handle and was about to pull the door up, but then he hesitated.“Go on,” said Joey, “We’ll soon see.”

The butler pulled open one of the big looking barn doors. Joey and the men walked in. The man in the vest turned on the light switch. But to Joey amazement, the car was just an old black Buick. Joey was shocked!

“Now do you see?” said the man in the blue suit.

Joey was still amazed. “I’m so sorry, gentlemen. I made a big mistake! But my scanner pointed this way.”

“Technology does make mistakes,” said the man in the hat. “We all get mixed up. It’s all right,” he said with a smirk.

“But I have another question,” asked Joey, “What’s with the same statue of cats? And why was there one broken in the kitchen?”

“We just like that kind of statue,” the man in the blue suit said. “There are plenty of them to match. And the one in the kitchen broke when a cat knocked it over.”

“Oh, I see,” said Joey. “Goodbye gentlemen. Sorry to disturb you.”

“It’s OK,” said the man in the hat, “Hope you find the man who spied on you.”

“Thanks,” said Joey as he turned to leave.

The rocks came from around the back of the house.

“So,” asked Ks, “Did you get the men?”

“No,” replied Joey, “We made a mistake. This isn’t the right house.”

“But what about the scanner?” exclaimed Roc.

“It must have made a mistake,” answered Joey, “This isn’t the right house. Come on, let’s go home.”

The men opened the gates for them, and they walked the long trip home.

The men went back inside the mansion. But on the side of the mansion, a gust of wind blew a tarp off an object. Underneath the tarp was the blue, 1970 Cadillac.

Chapter 4: More Mystery By Brother EJoey and the rocks got back home a few minutes later.

“It makes no sense,” said Joey as he climbed the stairs to their apartment. “How come the scanner made a mistake?”

Joey pulled out a key out of his pocket and unlocked his door. He opened the door to find Pauley out of his cage and flying around in the room!

“Oh, no!” cried Roc, “I knew we should have got that lock sooner!”

“We have to get him back in his cage!” exclaimed Ks.

“Right,” said Joey as he reached for a towel to cover Pauley’s head, “Let’s cover him up for he won’t see a thing so we can get him back in his cage.”

Joey leaned in with the towel just behind Pauley. Pauley turned his head and saw Joey coming with the towel and flew away!

“Rats!” exclaimed Joey, and tried again.

“We’ll scare him your way,” said the rocks.

Roc and Ks climbed on top of the shelf where Pauley was perched on. Joey came around the on the other side of the shelf. Then, Roc and Ks leaped after Pauley, scaring him towards Joey. Joey had the towel at the ready, and dove at Pauley. Pauley swept to the left and Joey and the rocks collided heads! Joey dropped to the ground and turned his head. Pauley was flying right by the Ruby Cat!

“No, Pauley!” shouted Joey, but it was too late.

Pauley fluttered past the Ruby Cat, which made it fall of the shelf and fall to the ground. Crack! The Ruby Cat was in a million of pieces!

“Oh, Pauley,’ exclaimed Ks, “Look at what you did!”

“It’s not a Ruby Cat anymore,” said Joey as he picked up the pieces. But he noticed something.

“But did you notice, Rocks,” he said, “This is not the Cat with the rubies.”

He turned his head toward Pauley. The green bird with yellow wings looked at Joey as if to say “So what?” Joey glared back.

“So rocks we have a lot of work to do,” he said, “Finding the real Ruby Cat is going to be a challenge.”

He swept up the pieces and put the statue on a shelf to maybe, with any chance, to glue back later. After the mess was cleaned up, Joey put Pauley in the cage and locked it with the big lock they bought. He decided to take a two hour nap. It was almost morning now, so he knew didn’t need to sleep much. He sat down on the couch and slowly drifted to sleep.

The sound of crackling and sizzling woke Joey from his sleep. He sniffed the air, and a delicious smell of eggs and bacon floated by his nose. Joey looked at the clock. It was 6:30 am. He walked to the small kitchen and found the rocks making breakfast. “You were sleeping quite a while and we got hungry, so we decided to make breakfast,” said Roc.

“Why, thank you, Rocks,” exclaimed Joey.

After breakfast, he turned on the TV to the news channel. It didn’t have anything helpful, except talking about politics, crimes, and weather. Joey shut of the TV. That’s why he preferred books to help him gather information. Just then, the doorbell to his apartment rang. Joey opened the door to find officers Claire and Garson at the door.

“Hello, Joey,” they both said in a not so happy tone.

“Hello, officers,” replied Joey in a more, happier tone. He thought it might lighten their mood. “Come in and have a seat.”

He offered to hang their ball caps on the rack and they officers walked inside. The rocks gave them cups of tea, which they thanked them politely. They sat on Joey’s big brown sofa. Joey sat in his reddish brown arm chair.

“So, what is the news today?” he asked.

“Another case,” replied Claire, “Not so happy one either. We’ve been reported to stop recent robberies in the area.”

“Store robberies?” asked Joey.

“Not quite,” replied Garson, “House robberies. Houses have been broken into, and the funny thing is that not one thief took a single item.”

“Huh.”

“I know,” responded Claire, “People who leave their garage door open have had thugs trash their entire garage. But as we said before, nothing has been taken.”

“So, whatever it is, they are looking for a particular item then,” hinted Joey.

“You got that right,” replied Garson, “These thieves must be looking for something and are breaking into every house there is in this city.”

“And we don’t know who and where they are,” said Claire. She sipped her tea, “And what is the item they are looking for, we have no idea.”

“I don’t either,” said Joey.

Just then, Garson’s walkie talkie burst out noise.

“Another break-in at a house on 25th street!” some exclaimed on the microphone, “Respond immediately!”

“That’s us!” said Garson, and gulped down his tea in one gulp.

“Yes,” replied Claire, she drank the rest of her tea. “Bye, Joey! We’ll see you later.”

The two got off the couch, grabbed their hats of the rack, and raced out the door.

“We’ll tell you more, later, Joey,” responded Garson.

“Alright, bye, officers!” said Joey

“Bye!” exclaimed the rocks as the two went down the stairs of the apartment and left out the doors of the building.

“Well, rocks,” said Joey, “Looks like we got more mystery on our hands.”

Chapter 5: Time to go to Berlin By Brother EJoey went over to the computer to put all the facts he had gathered in order. He sat back and started to think.

“Hmm,” he said to himself aloud. “An old statue with rubies for eyes, rubies that come from the Ottoman Empire. The rubies were taken from the statue and passed down to other people, kings, and ladies. A famous jewel thief stole the rubies, but only to be caught and killed in a shoot-out with the police. But before he was caught, he hid them inside a ceramic cat statue. The statue was shipped around the world with a lot of other statues like it. The rubies could still be in the statue somewhere in the world. But people are afraid to look on in this mystery because the fear of curses or gangs. Now, robberies are happening in houses everywhere, the thieves aren’t taking, but looking for certain objects.”

“Well, we got a lot on our plate,” exclaimed Ks.

Joey nodded and got up from the computer.

“First plan of action,” said Joey as he got up, “we need to go to Berlin.”

“Berlin!” exclaimed the rocks, “That’s a long way away!”

“Yes,” replied Joey, “but that’s where it all originated form, so it would be logical to go there.”“Fine,” agreed the rocks.

Joey knew this would be a lot of work for him and the rocks alone. Then an idea hit him, he could take the town’s famous detective, Radford, with him. Joey pulled out his phone, and contacted the famous detective.

“Hello? Hey, Joey! How are you doing?”

“Hello, Radford! I’m doing well. Yourself?”

“Just fine. Now what are you and the rocks up too.”

“That’s just why I was calling.”

Joey told Radford the entire thing, from how it started the day before to now. He told him of the two, perfectly matching rubies, and how he stumbled on a case to get them to the museum. Then he told him his plan and why he called him.

The next morning, Joey got his passports ready for the long trip to Berlin.

“OK, rocks,” said Joey packing up the passports in the bags, “Time we get moving.”

“Guess so,” agreed Ks, “We got a long trip ahead of us."

They walked down the stairs to the front desk with the two ladies.

“Here’s our key to our room, Miss. Jane,” said Joey has he handed her the key.

“Leaving again?” exclaimed Miss Jane as she took the key.

“Where now this time?” asked Miss Mary.

“To Berlin,” replied Joey.

“Berlin!” exclaimed the ladies before Joey could finish.

“Yes, there are clues there for our next mystery.”

“Well, you have traveled further before,” pondered Miss Jane.

Then she turned to the rocks.

“Be sure to watch over him and bring him back here, alright.”

“Sure ma’am,” assured Roc with a wink, “We will.”

“I won’t get in trouble,” sad Joey with a laugh. “Don’t you worry a bit.”

Joey waved goodbye to the ladies, and he and the rocks walked out the door.

“OK, rocks, let’s go to the airport,” said Joey, who pointed in the direction of the airport.

They walked the along the sidewalk down the roads to the airport. They came along and met up with Radford and Scooter.“Are you ready, sonny?” asked Radford.

“Ready,” replied Joey, “Let’s go!”

A lot of people were walking to the airport too. Joey, Scooter, and Radford walked into the airport and went to the passport booth. They got their passports and took the first plane to Berlin. They boarded the plane and waited to leave.

But in the airport, a few men grouped together in circle talking. One nodded and they walked and boarded the plane. They decided to sit a few rows behind Joey, Radford, and Scooter to not be noticed. As they walked by, they tipped their hats to cover their faces and sat five rows behind him. Just then a flight attendant lady spoke up.

“Please, fasten seat belts everyone. We are about to take off.”

Everyone fastened their seatbelts and the plane began roll down the runway. Then the plane took off at great speed. Joey looked down at the rocks.